THE CRUNCH
Attackers stole the central university login passwords of everyone registered with the Technical University of Munich's myTUM portal, the service that gives students and staff online access to university services and documents. The university disclosed the attack on November 6 and restored access to its TUMonline campus management system on Monday morning, letting users change their passwords.
The myTUM breach escalated: the attackers used an administrator's stolen credentials to launch a follow-on attack on TUMonline, the central campus management system, which forced the IT team to take it offline. TUM has not said how the attackers first got in, how the stolen passwords were stored, or how many people are affected.
There is some reassurance on scope. The university confirmed that accounts with multi-factor authentication (MFA) were protected from the attack, and CIO Dr Alexander Braun said the attackers' access within TUMonline was largely logged, so TUM currently assumes nothing else was compromised, such as grades or college applications, though investigations continue.
Personal data may still be exposed. Names, home addresses and dates of birth could have been accessed, along with work details for employees and student records including ID numbers, degree programs and completed semesters.
Users are being directed to reset passwords through Microsoft 365 where possible. Those without MFA must instead use a German electronic ID or request a reset email while on the campus network. TUM also warned users to watch for phishing, change any reused passwords, and noted the institution has roughly 51,954 students and 12,850 employees.